Finished for the Year

We are finally finished with all our demonstrating at gem and mineral shows for the year. Since we will be traveling so much we don't have anymore scheduled until the first weekend in June. Quite a big break for us as we usually do one in April and one in May. I think 2013 will be our mega travel year with a long extended vacation to Italy. I'll definitely be blogging more about that as we get closer.

I worked on some metal pieces this weekend along with some bullet charm/pendants. Both are selling well and I have a class scheduled at the gem and mineral show this coming Saturday to teach this technique. Funny, I have more men in my class than women. Since it involves a lot of hammering, I would have thought that would have appealed to women wanting to get out their aggressions...I know I do. It really does make for a better marriage if he can handle all the noise. ha

So here are a few pieces from this weekend.

I did four Mexican Fire Opals (second photo) in copper, the Ammonite in copper, Tiger Eye in brass and the unknown lovely blue stone (may be Shattuckite but definitely a copper mineral) with copper flecks mounted in copper. My favorite is the Tiger Eye in brass even though the brass was a bear to work with even when I annealed it using the torch.

Here is an example of the bullets with Mexican Fire Opal glued inside the bezel. They've been cleaned up a bit since I took this photo this weekend and the lighter one sold as well as one I made as a special order for Johnny of Tipps Gems who brought me over this wonderful faceted opal and wanted it mounted in one of the bullets. It turned out great but unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it. Since it was a trade for services, I did receive a faceted sunstone, faceted citrine and a piece of faceted red glass....all will look great mounted in the bullets.

Faceted stones look great mounted.

I'll be sure to take some photos of my class this weekend and their creations...I'm sure they will be great.

Cheers, Dana

A Little Messy

Today I decided to take a class vs. teach a class, so it was soapstone carving. I've been wanting to try for quite a while but didn't know where to start. A friend has been carving little wizard figures out of soapstone and he agreed to teach so this was my opportunity. As you can see from the pictures we started with a triangle shaped piece of stone and did a little sketching with a pencil on the stone and then just started carving and filing. After about 3 hours it still isn't finished but I'll finish it up here at home. It is supposed to look like a wizard but I'm not sure if mine does....maybe a gnome or an old fashioned Santa...? I'll post a picture when I'm finished.

If you follow my posts here on my blog then you may remember me talking about an upcoming jewelry party where I was going to donate 30% of the proceeds to a local charity. Well the show was last Wednesday and it was a success. We raised over $200 for the Westgate Orthopedic Guild to benefit Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. I'm so pleased that I'll be able to present them with a check at their May meeting.

If you are interested in hosting a jewelry party with some of the proceeds donated to charity, please contact me at djames50 at gmail (dot) com.

One of the other things I had been working on the finally came to a close was these Victorian folding fans. Here is a picture of the complete table setting with them as the centerpiece with the flowers. The whole table looked wonderful and my friend Glenda did a great job organizing everything...oh and the Bunco and lunch were good also.

Here is a close up.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. We had the kids over for dinner today so after carving stone and cooking, I'm tuckered out and ready for an early night.

Have a great one.